Okay, a few basics. The summit of Kilimanjaro is at Uhuru Peak, which is at an altitude of 19341 feet (5895 metres). To give this some perspective for British readers of this blog, Snowdon in Wales is 3560 feet (1085 metres) and Ben Nevis in Scotland is 4409 feet (1344 metres), so Kili is pretty big! We are fortunate enough to live on the Welsh borders, so we'll be using the Welsh mountains, including Snowdon, to practice on but the Welsh mountains are mere bumps compared to Kili!
The route to the summit of Kili that appeals to me the most is the Lemosho Route, which is a low traffic route that approaches Kili from the West.
This route starts at the gate at Londorossi at 9498 feet (2895 metres) and covers a total distance of 42 miles (70 km) from that point to the Mweka gate after the decent. It is one of the most difficult routes but has a more spectacular and diverse scenery than the others. We will probably finally decide our route in the summer of 2009 after we've been training for some time. I want to do a challenging route but I also want to be realistic and not ruin our chances of succeeding to the summit. We are fit middle aged but many fit people much younger than us have failed, even on the easier routes. There is also the altitude to contend with and we will not hesitate to take a little longer to allow a gentler acclimatisation, to make sure we succeed. To illustrate the magnitude of our task, in 2007, approximately 1,000 people were evacuated from Kili and approximately 10 deaths are reported every year. The main cause of death is altitude sickness. Our Tanzanian adventure is likely to cost us £15,000+ in total and we are not going to put that sort of investment at risk, let alone our lives.
This link takes you to a video on a website that describes what the climb/trek involves
The route to the summit of Kili that appeals to me the most is the Lemosho Route, which is a low traffic route that approaches Kili from the West.
This route starts at the gate at Londorossi at 9498 feet (2895 metres) and covers a total distance of 42 miles (70 km) from that point to the Mweka gate after the decent. It is one of the most difficult routes but has a more spectacular and diverse scenery than the others. We will probably finally decide our route in the summer of 2009 after we've been training for some time. I want to do a challenging route but I also want to be realistic and not ruin our chances of succeeding to the summit. We are fit middle aged but many fit people much younger than us have failed, even on the easier routes. There is also the altitude to contend with and we will not hesitate to take a little longer to allow a gentler acclimatisation, to make sure we succeed. To illustrate the magnitude of our task, in 2007, approximately 1,000 people were evacuated from Kili and approximately 10 deaths are reported every year. The main cause of death is altitude sickness. Our Tanzanian adventure is likely to cost us £15,000+ in total and we are not going to put that sort of investment at risk, let alone our lives.
This link takes you to a video on a website that describes what the climb/trek involves
http://vodpod.com/watch/622215-bootsnalls-kilimanjaro-climb
This one on Tusker Trails website is more professional but takes a while to download
http://www.tusker.com/whyTusker_AmazingVideo.cfm
This one on Tusker Trails website is more professional but takes a while to download
http://www.tusker.com/whyTusker_AmazingVideo.cfm
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